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MANILA, Philippines – A group that opposes government corruption has filed a complaint with the Ombudsman against officials from Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), led by Governor Benjamin Diokno, over a supposedly anomalous contract with a Foreign company for equipment and materials produce Philippine Identification Cards (PhilID) under the National Identification System.
Ricardo V. Fulgencio IV, president of the Stop Corruption Philippines Inc. (SCOPI) group that filed the complaints, said the bidding process for equipment and materials for PhilID cards was flawed due to the bidding and adjudication committee (BAC) of the BSP Security Plant. Complex (BSP-SPC), which is in charge of acquiring materials for the cards, specified a brand name, OVD Kinegram AD, which was prohibited by procurement laws.
Fulgencio said that the specifications in the BSP technical specifications and terms of reference “show a specific reference to a brand: Kinegram.”
He said that the Public Procurement Reform Act (GPRA) provided that “no reference to brand names will be allowed,” which was contrary to what he said was what BSP-SPC did.
“The GPRA does not allow specifying any brand name,” Fulgencio said in the complaints.
He said that Section 18 of the law was “unequivocal.” “The fact that respondents specified a brand, Kinegram, is definitely a violation” of the law, Fulgencio said.
Apart from Diokno, other BSP officials named in the complaints and accused of violating the procurement law and committing corruption were:
- Prudence Angelita Kasala, president of the BSP-SPC Tenders and Awards Committee
- Rogel Joseph Del Rosario, BSPD director
- Carl Cesar Bibat, Acting Production Manager at BSP-SPC
- Marianne Santos, Vice President of BAC
- Salvador Del Mundo, member of the BSP-SPC Bidding and Awards Committee
- Giovanni Israel Joson, member of the BSP-SPC Tenders and Awards Committee
Fulgencio said officials favored and awarded unwarranted benefits to OVD Kinegram AD and awarded the contract for the PhilIDs without public bidding.
He said that the 1.75 billion peso contract had been awarded in violation of contracting rules.
“This nefarious act was included in the leasing of card production equipment and the leasing of card personalization equipment,” Fulgencio said.
“In simple words, OVD Kinegram AG won a multi-million dollar contract … without going through the required public bidding,” he said.
Citing cost records, he said more than P900 million would be paid to OVD Kinegram AG for materials and more than P841 million for polycarbonate.
INQUIRER.net sought out Diokno’s side, but has not responded as of press time. Diokno recently announced that he would take a medical leave to remove a blood clot after a minor accident.
TSB
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